Home, Work and Play in a Building

The time lag of transportation has long been one of the obstacles to building efficient cities, and mankind’s explorations to solve this issue have been many. Trains, buses, subways and monorails are just a few of the many ways engineers have tried to shorten the daily commute. It might not seem to be a very important issue, but a commute of fifteen minutes from home to work takes an extra half hour each day. It is a large portion of time where a worker is unable to enjoy being home with their loved ones.

In the world today, many major cities use a combination of these techniques to get vehicles off the roads and avoid gridlock. It has not always worked well, so new buildings are being designed to combine work, home and play all in one place. These are unlike the apartments above shops that have been popular for centuries because they combine many separate apartment homes with dozens of small shops and entertainment venues.

While it may seem a waste to construct these buildings in the modern world, not every human need is covered by online services. People are learning to take care of many of their needs in this manner, but they still want shops where they can browse, meet friends and socialize. A building where they can do most of it with just a short elevator ride is a bonus, and working in the same building keeps them off the road during the hours when most people commute.

Large companies have invested in several of these types of communities in a building or complex in many areas, but most are in major cities or their suburbs. In the future, many more of them could be constructed to help ease the growing need for convenient living space as well as the lack of fuels to power vehicles on the road.